December 20, 2020
The School of Life Sciences partnered with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University to offer the Graduate Certificate in Scientific Teaching in Higher Education.
Associate Professor Bryan Henderson has spearheaded this certificate for the past six years and will now be co-directed by Instructor Mitra Asgari.
One of the essential components of this program is that students complete a capstone experience. They can choose from (1) teaching (e.g., significant teaching as a co-instructor for a course); (2) curriculum development (e.g., developing materials for a lecture course, lecture recitations or lab course); or (3) discipline-based education research (e.g., conducting an education research projects in the context of an undergraduate course).
Students are required to find a mentor before applying to the program. The most common capstone option so far has been for students to TA for their mentor, followed by either co-teaching with their mentor or teaching a course on their own.